


The Whole Gender Thing

by Psilent (HereThereBeFic)



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Genre: Gen, Language, Pronoun Trouble, Pronouns, dialogue only
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 20:19:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2123358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HereThereBeFic/pseuds/Psilent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quill and Rocket have a conversation.</p><p>"Genders and pronouns kinda lose something between translations, y'know?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Whole Gender Thing

**Author's Note:**

> **Trigger Warnings:** Dehumanization (they're not humans but it's the closest word I can think of?), misgendering, the pronoun "it" being used as an insult. Implied murder, references to violence. Alcohol.
> 
>  **General Notes:** This has been up on my tumblr for a while and I wasn't going to put it anywhere else because it's so short and dialogue-only. But I finally decided to put it up here as a sort of explanation for why I use he/him/his pronouns for Groot in my works. Longer explanation of that in end notes if anyone wants to read it.

"Hey, uh... Should we - should we not be calling Groot 'he'?"

"Huh?"

"Just, uh. That kid the other day. Called - uh - called Groot a 'she' and h- frick - Groot seemed fine with that."

"Don't hurt yourself, Quill. Groot's fine with whatever pronouns anyone decides to give him."

"Seriously?"

"Dude, he's a _tree_. Most of them aren't that into the whole gender thing."

"I guess. I mean, uh, I think most of us stuck with 'he' because it's what you use..."

"Yeah, and I use it because it's what the people hangin' around him used when we first met up. I asked him about it eventually, he said it's cool. Also, between the five of us, we've got at _least_ four languages going on. Genders and pronouns kinda lose something between translations, y'know?"

"I really hate when people bring up the translation thing. Now I'm just looking at your mouth and waiting for the implant to glitch up so it stops matching what you're saying."

"Well look somewhere else, you're freakin' me out."

"Sorry. But, uh, so everything's cool with Groot? We're not - like, insulting him, um, constantly?"

"Nah, he really doesn't care. Mostly. He used to let people get away with ' _it_ ,' but, uh. I think I kinda ruined that one for him."

"You?"

"Yeah. See, even without the gender thing, the whole concept of pronouns is weird for him, because his people don't tend to go in for spoken language much in the first place. You might've noticed. So it never really registered for him that all these people kept calling him ' _it_.' And then, uh, someone did it to me, and. I mean, it wasn't the first time. Wasn't the last. But, you know, bad day, long week, I might have, uh. Bit the guy. Slightly."

"...I was honestly expecting something more... I don't know, _bomb_... related."

"It was a very spur of the moment thing. Anyway. We got the hell outta there, and then Groot wanted to know what my problem was, and I told him, and he didn't get it. I asked him why it never bothered him when people called him an ' _it_ ', and he asked me why it bothered me, and I... explained it."

"I'm sure that went great."

"Yeah. Honestly, I probably should'a waited for some other time when I was less pissed off and... you know, more sober. But. I told him – you know, unless you _tell_ people to call you that, otherwise, when they do it, they're doin' it because they don't see you as a _person_ , they don't _care_ about you or what you think, they... I don't remember all of it. Uh. I made him cry."

"Fuck."

"Yeah, it was terrifying. And sticky. Really good on pancakes, though."

"What the _hell_ , man, that is _disgusting_."

"I'm _kidding_! What, you seriously thought I _ate_  his _tears_?! On _pancakes_?! That's fucked up, Quill. ...It _was_ syrup or something, though. I swear."

"...Gross."

"Yeah, not a fun night. So anyway, yeah, avoid that one if you value your life, but anything else is cool."

"...Has he killed people for-"

"Story time's over, pal, we got shit to do."

**Author's Note:**

> I enjoy works that use different and more gender neutral pronouns for Groot (including "it" bc I definitely recognize that as a pronoun people choose to apply to themselves), but I can't get myself into the mindset of using the other pronouns exclusively and declaring the "he" pronouns incorrect, for two reasons:
> 
> 1\. "He" is not always necessarily male. There are lots of non-men who use "he."
> 
> 2\. (This is the biggest one for me.) Rocket calls him "he" in the movie and I don't believe Rocket would deliberately misgender him, or make assumptions and _risk_ misgendering him, especially given his own history of being treated the way he is. And Groot never seems to object to the pronoun. I know the real-world reasons for this are probably just the creators not putting that much thought into it, but in-universe this is my headcanon.
> 
> I don't think Groot identifies as male, I think he just doesn't mind whatever pronouns people choose to use for him.
> 
> (do not get me started on SPACE ALIENS using the bullshit male-female gender binary thanks bye)


End file.
